Commish slams feds on environment

Scott Vaughan, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development listens to a question as he speaks to the media at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa Monday Dec 6, 2010. (ANDRE FORGET/QMI AGENCY)

OTTAWA - The federal environment commissioner is slamming the government over its policies, warning Canada doesn't collect enough information about environmental threats and has no plans to deal with those threats.

In a report released Tuesday morning, Vaughan says the government is weak on a range of issues and does not have a plan to deal with climate change.

"Critical gaps in information hinder the government's ability to know how well its programs are working and inform Canadians about the state of the environment and important trends," the report says.

"The issue of climate change adaptation is something that's going to affect every single region of Canada. It's going to affect every large resource-based sector of Canada," Vaughan said.

Atlantic Canada is seeing more frequent and more severe storms, southwestern Ontario is seeing more extreme heat and the prairies are seeing prolonged drought, he said. The Arctic, which the government has made a priority, will be one of the worst affected regions in the world, he added.

Vaughan says there is at least one oil spill reported every day to the Canadian Coast Guard, though most are small.

But it's been a decade since the last national risk assessment on oil spills from ships or the last assessment of the Coast Guard's ability to respond, and the national emergency response plan is out of date.

"I am troubled that the government is not ready to respond to a major spill," he said.

Vaughan also criticized Environment Canada for not properly monitoring the country's lakes and rivers.

"Environment Canada cannot assure users that its water quality data is fit for use," he said.

The report comes the day Environment Minister John Baird is due to land in Cancun, Mexico, for UN climate talks. Opposition MPs and environmental groups, who have long been critical of the Tories for what they say are weak climate change policies, say Baird is going into the negotiations with nothing to offer on Canada's behalf.